Last week, I shared my favorite room in our house-my kitchen. We spend so much time in there, and I wanted to show you what I consider the heart of our home.

Today, as I continue with our renovation series, I thought I’d share with you how the exterior of our house has changed since we bought it.

This renovation is one that we decided not to tackle on our own-for obvious reasons. First, I think we’d still be painting it 2 years later. There’s no way Josh and I would have been able to tackle the exterior painting and finish it in a timely manner. Second, we have zero skills when it comes to brick and changing out exterior doors. We knew it was a job left better in the hands of experts.

We called on Joe Shearin with Fisher Construction for the majority of the work on the exterior of our house. We were so pleased with the work that he is builder/contractor for the event venue we are building.

Here are some before pictures of our house.

As you can see, it had very dark brick with deep red mortar. The columns were small and white, and the single front door had a lot of brass in it. Don’t get me wrong-there was nothing wrong with it. It just didn’t suit my taste, and I wanted the exterior to be light and updated.

Renovation Details

We had the entire exterior painted. We chose Gray Mist by Sherwin Williams. The word "gray" can be a little misleading, as you can see it’s definitely not gray.

We had the existing front door ripped out and we donated it to Habitat Home Goods store.

We also had the vinyl white columns pulled out, and in their place, we had rustic hewn wood columns installed.

I did go out on a limb and painted my front doors in Benjamin Moore Stratton Blue. I knew it was a risk, but just like my kitchen cabinets, I wanted to give our home some personality. The guys that painted it asked me a million times if I was sure. I’m never scared of paint, and I kept convincing them yes-please paint them!

After Pictures

Here are the after pictures; photos courtesy Meg Rushing.

I’m so happy with the results. I feel like our home fits in its country setting so much better with the new exterior. I love how light and bright it is, and I’m still so happy with our decision to invest in getting the exterior of the house redone.

In the next installment of our renovation series, I'm going to share with you details of the interior of our house, including going from beige walls and wood ceilings to an ALL WHITE interior. I guess I loved my exterior so much, I decided to lighten things up in the inside of our house.

8 days to Christmas-are y’all getting excited like my house is?!
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We have some family Christmas 🎄 traditions that we look forward to each year.
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We love attending the candlelight service at church on Christmas Eve. There’s something magical about singing hymns with just the glow of 🕯 surrounding you. As soon as we leave church, we eat Chinese-just like on #thechristmasstory
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We also decided early on in our marriage not to give each other gifts on Christmas. Honestly, we tend to do so many house projects, we laugh and say our Christmas gifts are usually new flooring, new paint jobs or some other renovation project🤣
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Speaking of gifts, when our kids were born we told Santa 🎅🏻 that he only needed to bring them 3 🎁 each. They think long and hard on what they want their three to be each year✨
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This year, I’m excited to try a new gift exchange with my family. All the adults are bringing one “as seen on TV” gift, and we are playing a game to see who gets each gift!
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Do you have a holiday tradition you look forward to each year? Drop your favorite below👇🏻

I’m dreaming of blue skies and the 🌊 today.
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A few weeks ago, I conquered my fear of being out on a boat in the ocean to go deep-sea fishing 🐠 I also touched a fish for probably the first time in my life😜
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I grew up fishing with my parents on Lake Graham, but I never baited my own hook or touched a fish when I caught one.
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Looking back on this little 6-hour trip we took, if I had said “no” because I was scared, I would have missed seeing sea creatures I’d never seen before. I would have missed watching my daughter bait her own hook! I would have missed one of the best days out on the ocean with my family as we reeled in some pretty amazing fish 🎣 .
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Saying “yes” even when we are scared can allow us to experience moments we otherwise would miss.
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Dale Carnegie said, “If you want to conquer fear, don’t sit home and think about it. Go out and get busy.” Pretty good advice, if you ask me✨ #livethelittlethings #lifeofadventure

These two will leave our venue tonight as Mr. and Mrs.💕
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Happy wedding day to Emily and John✨ 📷: @kristajoyphotography